The Dodge City High School drama department will present the comedy “If a Man Answers” at 7 p.m. March 22-24 in the high school auditorium.
The comedy, based on the 1962 movie starring Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin, centers on Chantal, whose mother is a fun-loving Parisian and whose father is a straight-laced Bostonian. Chantal describes her life as “a souffle-and-beans existence.”
Fretting about the state of her recent marriage, Chantal asks her mother for advice. Her mother suggests the secret for making a husband happy is to “treat him like a dog,” and gives her daughter a dog training manual.
Things go smoothly until Chantal’s friend from Boston, Tina, arrives and Chantal confides the secret to her happy marriage. Tina tells Chantal’s unsuspecting husband what’s going on and sparks fly.
The local version
Taking the role of Chantal in the local production is Gentry Cork, a senior actress who’s been in every play and musical during her four years at the high school.
“Chantal is a well-to-do girl who likes to have a lot of boyfriends around,” Cork said during a break in a recent rehearsal.
“When she finds herself engaged to three men in Boston, her father moves her to New York, where she meets and marries a photographer. Of course, he has lots of hot models around, so she worries about her marriage,” Cork said.
As one of the most active members of the drama club, Cork is proud of the production.
“We’ll do this show for kids from the elementary schools on Thursday morning, like we always do, and I think that’s important. I want kids to know there’s live theater out there, not just TV and movies,” she said.
Cale Morrow, a junior who’s also been active in musical and play productions at the high school, agreed.
“One of the big reasons we picked this play is that we wanted a large cast.”
Another play, “But Why Bump Off Barnaby?” had been tentatively scheduled for the spring.
“We wanted to strengthen the department with new young actors, so we planned some recruiting,” Morrow said.
The students made sure they had a strong, funny skit in the floor show this year and they also sent cards to the cast members of the recent musical who weren’t signed up for drama.
“We just said ‘Hey, we loved your performance in My Fair Lady and how about trying out for the play?’,” Morrow said.
As a result, a record number of people showed up for auditions.
“We actually had to turn a few people away, even with the large cast of this show,” Cork said.
The cast of “If a Man Answers” is the largest either Cork or Morrow remember working with for a play — 22 actors on stage.
And the play offers challenges to the technical crew as well.
“There are 12 scene changes,” Morrow said. “The action takes place in several houses and also in Central Park.”
With the play set in the 1960s, coming up with period costumes has also been a challenge.
And there’s a big dance scene. Most of the cast spent Wednesday of spring break week at a “dance boot camp,” learning to cha-cha and talk at the same time.
But the cast and crew, who are on spring break this week, are working to make the production memorable.
“We always look forward to the kids who are a year or two older than us coming back to see the show,” Cork said. “And since this will be my last show here, I know I’ll be one of those coming back next year. We want the actors who went before us to know that, even though they left, they left the department in good hands.”
Morrow, who has another year left before graduating, said “A lot of my best friends are seniors — this play is a good way to say good-bye.”
Anne Kaiser, director of the play, said “I’m thrilled that these particular students wanted to be part of this department — they’re the best actors in our school and I wouldn’t want to do this play without them.”
Because of the way the calendar falls, the spring play usually opens just a few days after spring break, not the ideal schedule leading up to opening night.
“I’m incredibly proud of these actors — to take on this huge production with such a challenging schedule,” Kaiser said.
“We should also point out that the dates for the play are wrong in the school calendar, so everyone should rely on our ads in the Globe for the right information,” Kaiser said.